Padang, Padang, Padang!

We can thank the Minangkabau people of Sumatra for Padang cuisine (Padang is the capital and largest city in West Sumatra).  As a testament to the cuisines exquisite combination of flavors and textures, Padang restaurants can be found throughout Indonesia.  Padang food is usually cooked once per day, and customers choose from those dishes, which are left out on display until no food is left.  You build your meal with little bit of rendang, vegetables, some spicy sambal (red or green), tofu, etc. drenched in a rich curry sauce.  Eat it with a scoop of rice and wash it down with some es teh tawar.

Westerners (esp. Americans) are usually afraid of Padang food. Afterall, we use all sorts of gadgets to test the doneness of meat, throw out food that's been out of the fridge for more than a millisecond, and in general, freak out over anything food-safety related.   Europeans who are used to tapas from bar counters, fully-bloomed cheese and whatever else are generally more open to Padang food.

But I have to tell you...you must try Padang food. Build your plate carefully, making sure to balance the textures, flavors, and spice. You'll leave happy and wonder why you only paid 15,000Rp for the entire meal.

The best Padang food in Ubud can be found at Masakan Padang Puteri Minang on the Ubud Main Road.  The restaurant is on the right hand side as you drive out of town--just look for the huge picture of Puteri Minang (Minang's Daughter) right before the post office road.   Puteri Minang has a wide selection of dishes and some of the best Padang food I've had on Bali.

Masakan Padang Puteri Minang
Jl. Raya Ubud
Open 7 days a week

Quick Reviews

If you're in town and have a random urge to eat Indian or Cajun (!) food, head to Warung India or Devilicious:

Warung India:  On Jl. Hanoman near Jl. Gootama...has tasty samosas and curries. They also make Thai curries, but we've found the Indian selection to be much better.

Warung Devilicious: On Jl. Gootama, this cozy place has Cajun food (once again, !)...I like the interior and the food is pretty good.  However, I advise against the po'boy sandwiches as they're more regular sandwich than po'boy, but their other sandwiches are good (esp. their chicken parm). I've yet to order their pastas, red beans and rice, or shrimp creole, but will post when I do.

                                                                    Chicken Parmesan sandwich

Warung Simple

Warung Simple.  Their menu is truly simple as they offer diners a choice of only 3 main dishes everyday.  For example, we went on a Thursday and their offerings were Ayam Bakar or Goreng (Grilled or Fried Chicken), Nasi Goreng Pandan (Pandan Fried Rice), and Bubur Ayam (Chicken Porridge).  The other days offer dishes like Rendang, Gado Gado, Vegetarian Nasi Campur, Rawon, and oxtail soup. Dishes range from 15,000Rp to 25,000Rp and during happy hour, buy one beer and get another for free (including Heineken and local Storm beers).  They also have a few appetizers and a selection of Indonesian desserts like fried bananas and es cendol. The restaurant's been open for about a year; the staff are nice and the interior is very welcoming--the walls are covered in dark bamboo and the tables are sturdy with benches (fancy Balinese picnic tables of sorts).

Nick ordered the ayam bakar and even though I don't like fried rice much, I had the pandan fried rice as I was curious about the pandan flavor.  We also ordered tahu isi goreng (3,000Rp)-- tofu stuffed with bean sprouts, vegetables and ground chicken, then deep fried -- which was delicious.  We both agreed that the ayam bakar was some of the most well-cooked and tasty grilled chicken we've had.  The meat was moist and the sauce/baste was a well-balanced mix of salty, sweet, and a hint of spice.  My pandan fried rice was good, but nothing special.   I wouldn't order it again as I'd rather try their other dishes as some of them aren't available elsewhere in Ubud, and their food is really yummy.

 

Ayam Bakar with rice, sambal, and salad

 

                                                                     Nasi Goreng Pandan

The restaurant is about 5 minutes west of Ubud centre a little past Naughty Nuri's on Jl.  Raya Sanggingan.  You should definitely check out this place and get away from the boring places on Monkey Forest Rd.

Warung Simple

Jl. Raya Sanggingan

Open 7 days a week

Chicken Rice the Kedewatan Way

Months before we moved to Ubud, I heard about the great nasi campur  served out of a little house that's been converted into a restaurant.  Even Janet De Neefe, Ubud's Austrailian-Balinese Martha Stewart, writes about it in her book (although she leaves out the restaurant's name).  The restaurant is called Nasi Ayam Kedewatan (literally--Chicken Rice Kedewatan) and has been operating  in a small village northwest of Ubud proper since 1964.  It's run by Ibu Mangku and is usually full of locals stopping for lunch on their way to temple or sitting with their office/store mates for a plate and a smoke.  You'll also find a few tourists digging into their food.

The guy who rents us our motorbike also told us this is the best nasi campur place in Ubud, so we had high hopes going in...especially because we've been eating THE BEST nasi campur in Sanur for the last few months.  And everyone seems to think food in Ubud is soooo much better than food in Sanur (which it is for the most part), so this had to be an awesome plate of nasi campur.  I have to admit, it is  pretty good. Although not as good as the nasi campur in Sanur (still debating whether or not I should tell readers where it is).

The plate (12,000Rp) comes with rice, sate lilit (chopped chicken mixed with grated coconut and spices, molded onto bamboo sticks, then grilled), tum (slices of chicken mixed with spices and grated coconut covered by banana leaves then steamed), two kinds of braised chicken (spicy and mild, both of which cooked in cocount milk), sayur lawar (sliced long bean mixed with grated coconut), roasted peanuts, fried chicken skin, and a very spicy dry sambal.

The chicken is indeed very moist and flavorful, the lawar offers a nice contrast to the chicken, the peanuts perfectly roasted, and the sambal spicy.  My only real complaint is the sate lilit as it's too sweet and always contains unpleasant, crunchy bits of coconut husk and whatever else.  But who am I to complain after paying $1.25 for the entire plate.  Also, unlike most other local warungs, Nasi Ayam has a nice dining area where you can choose to sit outside or inside.

If you're in the area, you should definitely stop by, have a plate and wash it down with a nice mug of es teh tawar.

Nasi Ayam Kedewatan
Jl. Kedewatan (North of Jl. Sayan)

A Temple Procession and a Martini

First, few pictures of a temple procession down the main road:

Also, I had the second Martini of my life (my first was a horrible-tasting "Executive Martini" I shared with my sister in Chicago) and enjoyed it.  I had it extra dirty from Nomad's.  The restaurant was started by Nyoman Sarma and he's very active in Indonesia's organic and sustainable agriculture movement.  His restaurant's been around for over 20 years and is a nice place to grab a drink.

                                                                                         Late-afternoon martini

Warung Laba Laba

Eating a bad meal...rather, paying to eat a bad meal upsets me more than it upsets the next guy.   It upsets me even more when I read a somewhat positive review on TripAdvisor, only to find the reviewer was totally off.  Optimists might say the chef's cooking was off the night we went.  But it can't be that the restaurant ran out of salt, pepper, and every other spice left in Indonesia.  Or that the chef didn't feel like cooking, so decided to heat up pre-packaged meals and send it out as his/her own creation.

I don't mean to sound cranky, it's just that bad restaurants don't make sense to me.  Even if I allow for the presence of a sizeable group of diners with a limited number of tastebuds, I won't understand how bad restaurants continue to operate or for that matter, open in the first place.  Are these owners surrounded by friends/family who feel the need to lavish their bad cooking with exaggerated praise?!?  And how do they continue to stay open?  I'm not talking about personal preferences, break-even points for the operator, and the rest of the economic analysis, that's not what I want to know.  What I want to know is...why do people pay to eat bad food? Am I the only one whose food-soul dies a little everytime I pay my bill after eating a bad meal???

My food-soul died a little after finishing my meal at Warung Laba Laba.  I've managed to catch a cold and wanted soto ayam (Indonesian chicken soup) to chase away my tropical cold.  My husband had been stuck at home eating instant mie goreng and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all day, so we ran out of the house as soon as the rain stopped and motorbiked our way into town.  Laba Laba looks inviting enough and they have a decent selection of Balinese food.

I ordered soto ayam (18,000Rp) and Nick ordered their nasi kuning special (45,000Rp).

                                           Nasi Kuning Special

                                                                    Soto Ayam
After the first taste, I think, "I've had Buddhist temple food with more flavor."  There was no salt, spice, or heat in either dish, so I asked for some sambal (which made it better).  There really isn't much more to write about the food, it was bland and lukewarm when served.  The soto ayam tasted like it was made by a miserly chef who added only a fifth of the recommended amount of a soto ayam mix to the broth.  I almost forgot to mention the spring rolls, which were soggy and were served with a big side of flavorless pink sauce.  In all, we spent 95,000RP (about $10US) and the best part of our meal was the pot of ginger tea (10,000RP).

I don't recommend eating here unless you're on a restricted salt or flavor diet and don't mind spending 2-3x the market price for the food.

Warung Laba Laba
Jl. Hanoman 49 (Southern end of road)
Telephone: 0361-978434

Kué Bakery and Cafe

It might seem odd to review Kué Bakery and Cafe for my first blog entry.  Why not a local warung (little restaurant) that serves tasty ayam betutu or write about the amazing range of sambals that Indonesian food can't live without (my favorite is sambal sereh, a delicious mix of fresh lemongrass, shallots, and chiles)?

One reason is that my husband and I have been living in Indonesia for almost 7 months, and need a break from Indonesian food from time to time.  Another is that I love, love pastries and have developed an appreciation for tea since moving to this country.  Yet another is that Kué Cafe has wifi and an inviting space upstairs...so after a quick lunch at a Padang restaurant (I'll review the ones in Ubud later) next door, we headed over to Kué Cafe.

                                          Upstairs Cafe with comfortable seating

                                                Tiramisu and Flourless Chocolate Almond Torte
           
As soon as you walk into the bakery (1st floor), you're surrounded by display cases full of truffles (7,000Rp), cakes, racks of fresh-baked bread, and rows of croissants (6,000-9,000Rp) waiting to be devoured. After staring at their selection for a bit, we headed upstairs to the cafe (there are a few seats downstairs if you prefer AC).  Nick ordered a chocolate prune cake (12,000Rp) and I had the rose and cardamom custard (13,000Rp).  The prune part of Nick's cake was actually good--this coming from a person who had never eaten prunes before Kué--the chocolate cake part was a bit too dry.  I think the cake had been sitting in the display case for a little too long...completely understandable because I can't imagine people come to Ubud, go to a cafe, then decide to eat chocolate prune cake, esp. when there's the guaranteed deliciousness of chocolate mouse cake next to it.

Chocolate mouse 1, Chocolate prune, 0.

My rose and cardamom custard was tasty -- a silky interpretation of kheer with the slightest hint of rose.  I also had a delicious pot of Earl Grey tea (15,000Rp).  The portions were good; I even thought my custard was too big, halfway convinced myself that I shouldn't finish all of it, but ended up leaving only a tiny spoonful.

Kué also has sandwiches, organic salads, soups, and serves breakfast daily.  They have gluten-free treats and also deliver to homes in the Ubud area, which is nice because there's been crazy rain the last few days.

                                           Friendly Staff at Kué
First post...done.

Kué Bakery and Cafe
Jl. Raya Ubud (Main Street)
0361-975-249
Daily from 9:00AM-10:00PM